


happy accidents

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: CFVG Next, Canon Expansion, Fishing, M/M, Under 20 Tournament Beach Episode, impulsive kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23238148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: The aftermath of Ibuki and Mamoru's fishing experience, wherein Mamoru accidentally kisses Ibuki.
Relationships: Anjou Mamoru/Ibuki Kouji
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	happy accidents

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AbsoluteTempest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsoluteTempest/gifts).



> i had a twitter kissing prompt list and i forgot about it because i've been playing pokemon instead. 
> 
> anyway this is for you samkyun~

Fishing is one of Mamoru’s favorite hobbies, next to Vanguard. All his earthly cares melt away when he’s fishing; he can spend entire afternoons sitting on the pier with his feet dangling over the water, breathing in the cool, salty moisture while the sun bathes him in its warmth.

This isn’t one of those afternoons, but he wishes it was.

Ibuki sits next to him, staring into the water with such concentration that Mamoru wonders if Ibuki even remembers he’s there. They’ve spent the past five minutes in uncomfortable silence and Mamoru can’t help but worry that he had come off too flirty with his playful _Ibuki-kyun!_ and nudging. Then again, they had gotten into a bit of an argument earlier in the day, so maybe Ibuki is thinking about that instead.

Maybe he had been too accusatory, Mamoru thinks, which had _kind_ of been his intention, but in the kind of way where Ibuki would feel bad for a little bit but they could move on to the finer details of the whole Diffriding thing that Mamoru was still a little behind on. Instead, Ibuki just looks downcast, despite their playful bantering of ten minutes before.

And besides, Ibuki hadn’t kept Mamoru in the dark maliciously, just as he had tried to keep Mamoru from learning about his unintentional key role in the GIRS crisis. That counts for something.

“You kept quiet for my sake, didn’t you?”

Ibuki doesn’t say anything.

“But you know, if it was for my sake, shouldn’t you have involved me from the beginning?” He laughs a little to himself. “It was a lot of effort to get that information, you know.” And it had been. Tatsunagi Nome was a willing source of information, but it took Mamoru longer than he had liked to learn about him.

“You did that on your own,” Ibuki retorts, a bit too defensively.

“You should have known I would.”

The apologetic look in Ibuki’s eyes as he glances over at Mamoru confirms that Ibuki still feels guilty over excluding him, again.

“Still.” Mamoru lifts his chin to the sun. He swings his feet over the water. “It doesn’t change anything. We still have a job to do, right? Keep our world and Vanguard safe. Bring that joy to the next generation. Hm?”

Ibuki follows Mamoru’s gaze to the sky. “Yeah.”

They might have fallen into a more comfortable silence if a tug on Mamoru’s line doesn’t rip him out of his relaxed state.

 _This is a very large fish,_ he realizes excitedly.

“Ibuki! I’ve got one!”

“Huh?”

It tugs harder on Mamoru’s line, and he stands up to tug back. His heart races in anticipation. “Quick, get a net!”

Ibuki stands too, but much less confidently. He holds his arms out to the side as though his fight or flight instincts have been activated and he’s seriously considering flight. “Right, net, net… net?”

“Oh for—oh!”

The fish — certainly a very, very big one — fights back; Mamoru feels as though it’s going to either a) rip the rod out of his hands, b) tear his shoulder muscles, c) pull him into the ocean, or d) every one of these things, in order.

“Ah—!”

A strong pair of arms grab him around the torso; Ibuki holds Mamoru tightly and pulls him upright as Mamoru manages to yank the offending monster out of the water — and it is indeed a _very_ big fish.

“Oho!” He’s excited, his voice is high; this might be one of his biggest catches yet. Even Ibuki seems to be impressed, as he whispers _woah_ at the sight of it…

...and still doesn’t let go of Mamoru’s body.

“I-Ibuki, would you… the net...” Mamoru’s voice is strained from the effort of reeling in the fish.

“The… yeah...” Ibuki looks around, still holding tight to Mamoru.

“Under the cooler,” Mamoru grunts.

“The—yeah, sure...”

Finally, Ibuki’s hands release Mamoru’s body as he pulls out the net and readies it for transfer.

The fish is, understandably, unhappy about going in the net (which is too small for it in the first place) and squirms and flops around in Mamoru’s arms as he wrestles it in place. Ibuki seems to understand that letting go of the net to help would _not_ help and watches anxiously as Mamoru endures getting slapped by the fish’s tail three times before he manages to get it secured in the net and its struggling slows.

Mamoru breathes heavily, rubbing his sore arm, but laughs wildly as he stands up, takes Ibuki’s face in his hands, and kisses him full on the lips.

It’s not intentional. It’s an impulsive action brought on by euphoria and adrenaline. But as he comes down from this high, he finds himself staring directly into Ibuki’s wide, beautiful red eyes, and pulls away with what is almost certainly comic slowness.

“Oh, I…”

Ibuki doesn’t breathe; he isn’t even really focused on Mamoru, just staring ahead with his lips parted _just so_ and his eyes wide and his hair sticking to his cheek where Mamoru had left streaks of wetness from handling the fish.

“I—”

He’s breathless now.

“I’m—”

Ibuki finally manages to exhale.

“Anjou, what…”

Maybe, this whole time, he had been reading his relationship with Ibuki the wrong way. He wouldn’t have felt the subconscious impulse to kiss him if he didn’t think…

But just as Mamoru is struggling to come up with an excuse—any excuse at all; impulsiveness, being swept up in the moment, just a thing friends do, right, they kiss their friends, except has anyone ever just kissed Ibuki as a friend, he doubts it—Ibuki’s surprised expression curves into a small smile.

And then he laughs.

Not a boisterous laugh, but a small one, not breathy, but almost shy, which is… very much an Ibuki way of laughing.

“I’d kind of hoped...” Ibuki trails off, definitely shy. He looks down. Mamoru’s heart races. “Anyway, I think that’ll feed everyone well en–”

His weak attempt at changing the subject is completely derailed as Mamoru kisses him again, hands on Ibuki’s face once more; Ibuki’s soft _oh_ of surprise is muffled by Mamoru’s lips, and it’s pretty clear from the clumsy way Ibuki moves his own mouth that, no, he has never done this before.

Mamoru pulls away just enough to speak. Ibuki breathes heavily now, in hot huffs that condense over Mamoru’s cheek. “I’ve wanted to for a long time but you’re my boss so I figured it was inappropriate.”

“What changed your mind this time?”

“I don’t…” What _had_? “There’s more to all of this, isn’t there? This is just the beginning.”

“We’ll find out after the Under 20 ends, I guess.”

Ibuki’s hands rest on Mamoru’s chest. There’s no way he can’t feel Mamoru’s heart pounding against his palms.

If this situation with the Diffriders is just the beginning, maybe he wouldn’t have another chance at this for a long time.

Maybe not ever.

“I guess this time I just… got excited.”

Ibuki’s eyebrows furrow for a moment. He forces out a small laugh. “Well,” he whispers, “I didn’t… I didn’t mind it.”

“Yeah?”

“This time,” Ibuki says, more firmly.

“Of course.”

They kiss again, caught up in a moment that neither wants to end, but end it they must, since the fish needs to be cleaned and prepared for dinner, and they have to return to the others.

Mamoru finally pulls away first, tucking an errant strand of Ibuki’s hair behind his ear. “Well, I guess. We should...”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

Ibuki sort of pats Mamoru’s chest and straightens the collar that does not really need straightening, and Mamoru busies himself after with gathering their catch and collecting their fishing rods.

They can’t really go back from this, Mamoru realizes as he helps Tokoha prepare the fish for dinner. How can they? But they also can’t let this be a distraction. They have to put it in the back of both of their minds, through the end of the tournament, and through the end of whatever comes next.

But he can’t help but hope, as he watches Ibuki fail miserably at helping Chrono and Taiyou prepare the fruit and Chrono slapping his hand away from the pruning knives, because what else but hope for a better future could they be fighting for?


End file.
